Diljit Dosanjh lent his voice to ‘Ik Kudi’ in his first Hindi film ‘Udta Punjab’. He followed it up with two songs, ‘Dum Dum’ and ‘Naughty Billo’, in his second Bollywood outing ‘Phillauri’. However, he missed a chance to record a number in his voice for his third film, ‘Welcome to New York’. The singer-turned-actor from Punjab admits that although he would have loved to sing a song or two for the comic caper, the film’s hurried up schedule didn’t permit him to do what he cherishes the most about a film.
“Music makes me very happy and trust me, I would really have lent my voice to a song but we barely had time to prep. We just had about three weeks before we could start shooting. Besides, the film’s makers had already recorded their songs with other singers. I couldn’t have muddled around with their score, so for once, I didn’t sing for my film,” sighs Diljit, looking at the film in hindsight.
Incidentally, the singer-actor has rendered a romantic number in hockey star Sandeep Singh’s biopic ‘Soorma’, that releases in June this year and is his fourth Bollywood outing. “Few people know that Sandeep paaji is a romantic man which gave us some scope for music in a hockey-centric film. I’ve lent my voice to a romantic song written by Gulzar saab which is an honour for me,” says Diljit, who dabbles in music and acting almost simultaneously.
It’s known that Diljit found his calling in music when he was a child, learning under a teacher who appreciated him for learning poetry. Eventually, he became so fond of music that he took it up professionally, too. Somewhere along the way, acting found its way into his life. Given that he now has a string of projects in Hindi and Punjabi, would he consciously take a break from performing before the camera, and focus only on his first love, music? Or will music take a back-seat?
Bring this up and Diljit says, “I can’t take a break from acting but I’ve learnt to work my way around films and devote time to my music career. Like I use time between my movies to film music videos and create new songs. There was a time in my life when I’d only sing. In my initial years, I didn’t ever speak on stage, forget acting. Eventually, my confidence as a performing artiste grew. Today, acting has occupied centre-stage but I’m sure I can never let go off music.”
